Ohio Rep. Steve LaTourette slammed his Republican colleagues Wednesday for blocking aid to victims of Hurricane Sandy, calling lawmakers who opposed the relief “chuckleheads,” while Rep. Darrell Issa said he opposed the measure because it was stuff with pork.

“Your two senators packed this with pork,” Issa, House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman, said Wednesday on “Fox And Friends,” which airs from New York City, referring to Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. “They had the opportunity to have a $27 to $30 billion dollar legit relief package, packed it with pork, then dared us not to vote on it.”

The House Appropriations Committee had prepared a $27 billion relief package.

“The Senate didn’t do their job,” Issa added. “They sent us a bunch of pork and then left town, and that was just wrong. And the speaker has the support of the majority of Republicans that if we’re going to provide relief, we can’t allow it to be doubled with unrelated pork no matter where the relief is. And the relief will come early next year but it will come at the $27 billion level or I don’t expect to be voting for it.”

Meanwhile, LaTourette ripped Republicans for opposing the Sandy aid...

New Jersey and New York lawmakers were preparing a strategy for a Tuesday night vote on a $60 million aid package that had already passed the Senate. But House leaders abruptly changed their mind, meaning the package will likely die with the close of the 112th Congress on Thursday.

But LaTourette, a retiring member and close ally of House Speaker John Boehner, said the speaker told him the House would find a way to help Sandy victims.

The decision to kill the package has drawn scorn from New York and New Jersey. The cover of Wednesday’s New York Daily News dubbed Boehner and Cantor “Fiscal Stiffs.”

Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) slammed the House GOP on CNN’s “Starting Point,” calling the decision “indefensible.”

READ FULL SOURCE ARTICLE: 01/02/2013

Editor's Note: One more reason to insist that every expenditure measure and, in fact, every measure period, be considered on a stand-alone basis. Not only would it shed sunlight on the pork opportunistic politicians stick into critical legislation, it would slow the federal spending to a crawl, which in and of itself, would be a very good thing!